Donald Trump has relied on a number of unreliable characters over his short political career, a necessity given that most competent conservative political operatives are as disgusted by him as their liberal counterparts are. When your politics are so distasteful that they drive away even most of Washington DC’s shadiest political operatives, you have to fall back on whoever will work for you.

Thus we’ve seen a parade of indictable relatives and longtime goons, of pornstar-bribing factotums and boot-licking hard-right fourth-stringers who have surrounded Trump from the outset. However, among the motley crew of Schillers, Gorkas, and marginal reprobates, there was one member of the circus who never quite fit: Hope Hicks.

Ms Hicks entered Trump world as an archetypal twentysomething trying to make it in New York, and seems to be the one person in the West Wing who isn’t there because of blood ties to a sociopath, malignant Russian influence, or Azerbaijani money laundering. Her original job description consisted mainly of having Trump’s oversized suits pressed.

Now she’s the White House Communications Director and she’s facing immense pressure to testify about her time in Trump’s orbit, and when you tell the truth about Trump, you’re testifying against him. She knows where the bodies are buried, and she’s not going to throw her life away to cover for a guy who hired her for her looks.

Her Connecticut liberal family was horrified when she stayed on with Trump after his escalator ride. I really doubt that his behavior since has brought them around, and you just know that the most important people in Hope’s life are begging her to flip. She’s stonewalling the House Intel Committee as we speak, but because Trump controls that committee, it’s actually a sign that she’s broken away from him>. Hope may be no ingénue at this point, let alone innocent, but she’s not in deep enough to go down with the ship.

Palmer Report is consistently early and accurate when it comes to important political storylines – just ask our longtime readers. You can follow Palmer Report on Facebook and Twitter, or sign up for our mailing list.